ResMed to Educate Primary Care Physicians and Heart Failure Specialists at Upcoming Annual Meetings

San Diego, CA - July 12, 2005

ResMed Corp a leading manufacturer of products for the screening, treatment, and management of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and respiratory insufficiency, announced further progress in its ongoing efforts to increase awareness and recognition of the high prevalence of SDB and its negative impact on patients suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and hypertension. As part of this initiative, ResMed is helping sleep laboratories and home medical equipment (HME) providers develop relationships with primary care physicians and heart failure specialists.

The comorbidity of SDB with serious conditions like heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity is well documented. Studies have shown that SDB affects approximately 50% of heart failure patients, 60% of diabetes patients, 77% of bariatric surgery patients, and 80% of patients with drug-resistant hypertension.^1,2,3,4 SDB has been listed as an identifiable cause of hypertension by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and has been linked with lowered left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). 5 Additionally, patients with SDB have a greater risk of complications during treatment for other conditions than those without. However, treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP) has been proven to positively impact patients receiving therapy for the above disease groups.

Due to these findings, ResMed is working to build relationships between the sleep medicine and primary care communities with the goal of implementing practical solutions for SDB in private practice.

ResMed will be exhibiting at booth #518 at the American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Meeting in San Francisco ( September 29 through October 1) . ResMed will also be exhibiting at the Heart Failure Society of America Annual Meeting in Boca Raton ( September 18 through September 20 , 2005). The exhibitions are part of ResMed's industry awareness campaign to educate healthcare professionals on the high prevalence of SDB, as well as its impact on patients with cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.

"Approximately 20 million Americans have SDB, yet as many as 80% remain undiagnosed and untreated in practice. Many of those patients are struggling with other serious health conditions. Treating their SDB can have a tremendous positive impact on their treatment outcomes," said Michael Farrell, VP of Marketing, Americas . "We look forward to meeting healthcare specialists at the exhibition booth at AAFP and HFSA and discussing practical ways for them to work together with sleep professionals to reduce their patients' health risk by diagnosing and treating SDB."

For more information, contact Brooke Harding at ResMed by phone at (858) 746-2400 extension 2579, by e-mail at brookeh@resmed.com, or by visiting the company's multilingual Web site at www.resmed.com.

About ResMed

ResMed is a leading manufacturer of medical equipment for the screening, treatment, and management of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and respiratory insufficiency, selling a comprehensive range of products in over 60 countries. ResMed provides quality systems, reliable products, and complete solutions. We are dedicated to improving the lives of people suffering from SDB with effective therapy and lasting results.

¹ Javaheri et al. Circulation 1999
² Resnick et al. Diabetes Care 2003
³ O'keefe and Patterson. Obesity Surgery 2004
⁴ Logan et al. J Hypertension 2001
⁵ Kaneko et al. New Eng J Med 2003 Circulation 2000